A New Resolution (7 page)

Lore held up the jack with a know-it-all smirk that Nolan could have fallen in love with on the spot. “Need some help?”

“A knight to rescue us damsels in distress,” Kieran said, hopping off the car to greet her. “Where are you coming from, sexy?”

She set the jack on the ground. “Just driving around looking for some damsels to save.”

“Ah, normal Thursday evening activity,” Nolan said sarcastically, apprehensive about her car skills but worried a woman would end up out-tire-changing him, and still desperate enough to beg her for help. It was a complicated mix of emotions.

“C’mon.” Lore nudged his arm with her elbow and winked. “I’ve changed a tire or two in my time.”

“Is that so?” Nolan asked, leaning back on his arms before remembering the pavement was burning hot and removing them, a wince making his face scrunch up. “Please, impress me.”

Her eyes lit up, yet her kind and understanding facial expression remained unchanged. Lord, he wanted to see what she looked like when she let go. The woman was ensconced in layer after layer of self-control. “Challenge accepted, Mr. Roscoe.”

It was with great humility and thanks that Nolan crouched next to Lore and acted as her assistant, handing her tools when she asked for them, and watching in wonder as she deftly switched out the blown tire for the spare. She did it all in under fifteen minutes. The woman should have been on a professional pit crew.

Nolan also couldn’t help but notice that Kieran never offered to help, not once. Nolan did however catch on to Kieran’s purpose as he looked over his shoulder and spotted Kieran staring with smug satisfaction at not only his bent-over ass, but Lore’s. Well, Nolan couldn’t blame him. He probably would have done the same thing.

“Am I victorious?” Lore asked, wiping her dirty hands on her jean shorts and standing.

“Well, the tire is changed, so I would assume so.”

“No, I mean did I impress you?”

“Yes,” Nolan said slowly, scratching his stubble. “But you’ve also landed yourself in a bit of trouble.”

She frowned, betraying her disappointment in his lack of praise. It was sort of adorable. “Why is that?”

“Because, I’m more than impressed. I’m intrigued.”

“Seconded,” Kieran finally chimed in, sidling up alongside her and throwing his arm over her petite shoulders. “Let us cook you dinner as a thanks. Maybe you both can change all the tires on my car as well. I’ll just stand back and watch.”

She swallowed heavily, then smiled politely, skirting out from under Kieran’s arm before backing away toward her car. She was nervous. Was it Kieran’s touch that made her nervous or his proximity? “Thank you, but I can’t. I’m glad I could help. Don’t drive around on the spare for too long.”

“Yes, I’m not completely helpless when it comes to cars.” Nolan rolled his eyes at the crack, picking up her jack, then handing it back to her. She raised her eyebrows and stared at the thing pointedly. He ignored it. “You sure you don’t want to get some chow with us? There’s an insanely good food truck nearby.”

“Sounds tempting, but I really can’t.” She placed the jack in the trunk before shutting it, then settled herself behind the wheel. “Rescuing you damsels has made me late for an appointment.”

“Well, we hope to run into you again soon,” Kieran said, wrapping his arm around Nolan’s waist and tugging him back to their own car. She waved at them with a small smile and pulled back onto the road.

“Why didn’t you try to get her to come over?” Nolan asked Kieran, slipping his own arm around Kieran’s waist. “I know you were looking at her ass.”

“She’s the type of girl who avoids relationships, friendly or otherwise. You can’t just force a dinner—and what I’m assuming is floating around your horny head—on the woman without getting to know her better. Oh, and you wish you had my view instead of getting schooled in tire changing.”

“I am not embarrassed that a woman knows more about cars than I do. I’m embarrassed that Lore saw me looking—”

“Like an ignorant, useless excuse for a man? You’re pathetic.”

“You’re an ass.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

* * * *

Woman, you need to put your human disguise on and come out to celebr8 w/ us!

Kathy was far too persistent in her endeavor to include Lore in all the things she most decidedly did not want to be included in. Was it so hard for this woman to accept that three separate celebrations regarding the lawsuit victory were unnecessary? Really, Lore understood why Kathy felt the need to spread the joy she felt. Kathy was, after all, one of the main reasons Lore had set out on her mission to catch the asshole red-handed in the first place.

But now that it was over, she wanted to forget the whole ordeal had ever happened. The conniving and planning just reminded Lore of what she had the potential to become. She was happy for Kathy’s newfound freedom; she really was. But Lore thought it best she leave the celebrating to those who didn’t need to put a disguise on in order to act human, as Kathy seemed to think Lore was required to do in order to merely mingle.

She switched the phone to Do Not Disturb and popped it back into her purse, turning to the list she’d begun to write. She loved lists almost as much as she loved spreadsheets. Creating and checking off the items one by one was the most satisfying feeling.

“Well, hello there, pretty lady.” The deep tonality of Kieran’s voice made her heart skip a beat.

She hadn’t seen Kieran and Nolan since the flat-tire incident the week before, something she had taken an immense amount of pleasure in, and of course they looked just as handsome as they had sitting on top of a car or sweaty and filthy on the side of the road. She had especially liked the filthy part.

“Mr. McDowell, Mr. Roscoe. How are you both?”

“Lore, if you don’t drop that formal shit, we’re gonna have a problem in our next class,” Kieran joked, acknowledging her use of the formal as her own particular brand of sarcasm.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” She gestured to the seats across from her. “Would you like to join me? I promise to try and not be so formal.”

“You sure?” Kieran narrowed his eyes as he and his boyfriend sat. “I realize we can only ask so much of you before you combust.”

“You know, you’re not the first person to think me capable of spontaneous combustion.”

“Who was the first?” Nolan asked, his arresting eyes focusing on her, eyes that had been turned down in embarrassment as she had shown him step-by-step how to change a tire the week before. It had been adorable and somewhat enlightening, seeing him in a guise other than his confident-lawyer role.

“College roommate.”

“Wow, I can’t picture you all wide-eyed and eager to learn in college,” Kieran remarked, crossing his legs and arms, his head tilted as he stared at her as if he were trying to construct the image of her younger self right there. “Were you all wild and crazy? Did you stay in a dorm?”

“Yes, I lived in the dorms. My mother thought it would be good for me, spending time with peers and attempting to be social.” And it didn’t hurt that she would no longer have to look at her daughter—a constant reminder of her husband. “And, no, I was not wild and crazy…at first.” Lore would never know what made her admit to that little fact. But something about seeing the men together once more put her at ease while simultaneously keeping her on her toes. She hadn’t realized it until the moment they sat down and trained their eyes on her, but Lore was lonely. She wanted to have a conversation. And she wanted to have one with them more than anybody else. Seeing them randomly the past couple of weeks and getting only teases of interaction with them had left her wanting more.

“What about you?” she asked before they could pursue her college years further. “Did you do the whole going-away-to-college thing?”

“I did.” Nolan nodded. “Stanford law.”

“Impressive.”

Kieran sighed, rubbing his hand over his floppy, curly hair and mussing it up. “I didn’t go to college. I’m a high-school-dropout shmuck.”

His embarrassment was endearing, coming from a man who exuded confidence and charm. Lore never would have thought something like this could have such an effect on him. “There are many words I can use to describe you, but ‘schmuck’ is not one of them, Kieran.”

Nolan smiled in sympathy at Kieran, brushing some odd standing strands of hair back into place. “He also leaves the part about being an art prodigy out, but he’s modest.”

“Prodigy?”

“Kieran here is a well-known artist and even more famous photographer. He’s had shows of his photography in the surrounding cities, and one or two across the country.”

“That’s amazing, Kieran,” Lore praised, leaning forward and squeezing his hand in support. She could see his confidence and charm didn’t come from his success as an artist; in fact, he seemed modest and almost embarrassed by the fact.

“What do you shoot?” she asked, wanting to know more about these intelligent and talented men.

“People, places, things.” He shrugged, reaching to retake her hand and knead the palm in a small massage.

“So, just nouns?” Lore wanted to keep the conversation light and tried desperately to ignore the rate of her pulse as it sped up from having his hand rubbing hers.

“Mostly. Actions can be fun too, though.”

“Actions?”

“Two hands grasping. A man’s finger skimming a woman’s cheek. A kiss.” His lips touched her fingers lightly, his gaze never leaving hers. “A thigh tensing as it’s held by a lover.”

At his words, Nolan reached over and skimmed his hand along Kieran’s thigh, evoking an image of the two men entangled in one another.
A dark room. A large bed. Two strong and dominant men, one light, one dark, ensnared in a sensual battle to overcome the other with pleasure. A hand tightens on a nape, demanding submission. A grunt echoes through the room as a stiff cock is brushed against a firm ass, seeking entrance
. Then a new image, one with three figures instead of two, flashed through her mind.
The men no longer seeking to win a sexual battle, but now basking in the pleasure of the feminine silhouette between them. They kiss and lave her body with licks and bites, cooing at her, demanding more from her as she moans her pleasure. She is lost, not knowing who gives her what sensation, just knowing she is surrounded by them. Lost in a loving so intense she no longer understands who she was or who she has become.

Lore stood abruptly, wrenching her hand from Kieran’s. To her embarrassment, she realized she was breathing heavily and felt her face flush with mortification. The men both stood, concerned.

“Are you all right?” Nolan asked, squeezing her shoulder in reassurance. His touch soothed and agitated her at the same time, only serving to ramp up her confusion.

“Yes, yes. I’m sorry. I just remembered I—”

“Have an appointment?” Kieran asked, crossing his arms doubtfully.

“Correct. I’ll see you on Sunday at class, Kieran.”

She picked up her belongings and headed toward the door, but before she moved three steps, a strong grip on her elbow stopped her.

“No chance we’ll get a yes on a dinner invitation this time? We still owe you for helping us change that tire.” Nolan’s hopeful face was almost too devastating to disappoint. But she couldn’t say yes. These men were dangerous for her emotional stability.

“Perhaps some other time. Bye.”

She didn’t look back as she headed out to her car, but acknowledged that it was getting harder and harder to deny them.

Chapter Five

It was official. Lore abhorred yoga. She told herself she endured the torture to stay limber. In reality, she’d started exercising, no matter how much she already knew she hated exercise, to go along with her whole I’m-not-the-daughter-of-an-infamous-weapons-dealer kick. She’d been told that yoga helped to purify the mind, and cleaning out her parents’ house had brought back all the old nightmares. Actually they were more like memories, the never-ending court cases, news reporter microphones being shoved in her face, and her mother staring listlessly at the TV, looking as though hope and life had abandoned her forever.

After her husband was arrested and the truth about their marriage came out, Darlene never truly saw her daughter again. Lore may as well have been a ghost to her mother. Walking through the rooms she’d haunted until she turned eighteen and left home for a new life resurrected an old, desperate need to be a normal, boring, and average citizen. She figured yoga would be an easy, stress-relieving method to stay healthy, and it was something an average gal did—one who didn’t have an embarrassing family history involving years of trials and lists of villages in far-off countries that may or may not have been destroyed by the weapons her father sold. It had taken years of therapy to move past those particular nightmares. It was a wonder she was as well-adjusted as she was.

But, c’mon, yoga as a method of stress relief and purifying the mind? What an unequivocal crock of shit.

By the end of every Sunday class, her muscles were screaming, her chest was heaving to gain any amount of breath she could gasp in, and her hair was so frizzy and disgusting with sweat it was a wonder any other human deemed her worthy to even look at.

So why did she endure the torture week after week? The fine, muscled ass bent over in front of her was why she did it. Lore never thought of herself as an overly sexual being. She had needs that were sated quite well with a glass of wine and her rumbly vibrator. She was by no means an innocent, having had many riotous, drunken evenings in her college years. But she didn’t go out of her way to have sex. And by out of the way she meant going on dates or interacting with those of the opposite sex outside of necessary day-to-day conversations. After an adolescence of having her life put on display by the media, she liked her privacy, and relationships forced her to tell the secrets she’d rather keep.

But, oh, she could imagine herself a sexually driven woman when staring at that ass. It was the only reason she recognized Nolan as Kieran’s lover during the legal proceedings. Lore had found herself paying rapt attention to anything Kieran would say to her before and after class. She soaked up his effervescent nature and basked in any amount of attention he would pay her. It was all quite pathetic, especially since he was in a committed relationship with a handsome and successful lawyer. She could never accept the odd dinner invitations the men kept offering her during their chance meetings, as she wouldn’t be able to keep herself from staring at the two virile male specimens all evening, rendering herself incapable of speech or cognitive reasoning. If spending a few minutes listening to Kieran describe the images he captured as a photographer made her flush with heat and hot moisture pool between her thighs, then seeing the two of them in a room together for a prolonged period of time would reduce her to a drooling pile of feminine mush. Highly embarrassing and never going to happen.